PS4 may support DLNA and MP3 after launch, and the future of the PS3

The PS4 launches at the end of the week, but we’re still getting new insights about the entire development process of the console. Yesterday, there was a small media event in New York where Sony distributed the PS4 to a number of press outlets, and key PlayStation employees were available for interviews. Unsurprisingly, the lack of DLNA and MP3 support on the PS4 came up, and Sony had some very interesting answers.

Over at Giant Bomb, SCE Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida spoke candidly about the lack of DLNA and MP3 support on the PS4. After the official PS4 FAQ was unveiled, there was substantial pushback on the internet over these features. The sheer amount of feedback surprised Yoshida and Sony’s development staff, so now there is internal discussion taking place about adding in these features after the initial launch.

Yoshida goes on to point out that there are a number of features — like suspend and resume mode — still missing from the PS4 at launch. It’s obvious that the engineering team is strapped for resources, and lack of DLNA and MP3 support were simply casualties of the time crunch. He makes it clear that these features were not shunned for political or business reasons — there just wasn’t enough time to fit in everything. While the skeptics among us might label this as backpedaling on an unpopular decision, I’m inclined to believe that this simply came down to the harsh realities of shipping a product on a deadline.

The lifespan of the PS3 also came up in the interview, and Yoshida had a few interesting nuggets of information. After Gran Turismo 6 ships on the PS3 next month, all of the major development teams at Sony will be switching over to active PS4 development. Even so, smaller development teams will still be making games for the PS3 for the time being. He expects that the PS3 will stick around for at least a few more years, and Sony plans on supporting it as long as demand exists. Considering that it took 13 years for the PS2 to wind down, we can shouldn’t expect the PS3 to go gentle into that good night.

Yoshida also had many positive things to say about transitioning the PlayStation concept from a product to an ecosystem. With the rise of cross-buy titles on the Vita and PS3, he expects that practice to expand going forward. For example, games like Flower and Flow purchased for the PS3 will automatically be available at no additional cost for PS4 customers out of the gate.

If Sony delivers on the promises of cloud gaming, the concept of a game console will continue to become more ambiguous. At some point, every device with a screen could potentially serve as a “PlayStation,” so the PS4 might just be the last of its kind. The next few years will be very telling in regard to the future of gaming. If Gaikai takes off, who knows where we’ll be seven years from now?

A $150 discrete GPU is far faster than the PS4 and XBoxOne crap with the ultra slow AMD APU Jaguar at 1.6GHz.

Basil Nolan

And multi platform games available for a lot less than the console discs theft. Yeah. Hail fanboyism.

Phobos

That remains to be seen.

QA

No, its been seen since the days of the PS1.

haftarun8

The numbers don’t lie. And we have seen it in the BF4 PC benchmarks (at true native 1080p no less) vs. the PS4 (900p) and XBOne (720p).

Compared to previous console gens, these systems are starting out the furthest behind current PC tech since perhaps the 16-bit era. At least the Xbox360 has a modified X1900XT gpu which was the top AMD card of the time of release.

Aron

Having to pay about $10 more per game, and paying to play online will more than make up the couple hundred dollars difference.

Ofcourse, all console morons ignore the fact that they have a PC sitting at home, that usually just needs a few hundred dollars to whip into top gaming shape for 5 or more years, while PC gamers dont own a console at all.

NotYetRated

Hmm. I am a dedicated PC gamer yet I own a few consoles…. Gotta get my Zelda fix from somewhere! No denying The Last of Us either.

haftarun8

the PS4’s GPU is a slightly modified version of the AMD 7850 GPU, roughly the equivalent of a $150 card from AMD or Nvidia today. There are a dozen models that are more than twice as powerful in terms of compute performance from that price up to $400 or so, and beyond that are cards that are more than 5x as powerful (and yes, it DOES translate into being able to go a lot further with graphics than the best PS4 and XBOne demos have shown so far…running 4xSparse Grid Supersampling Anti-Aliasing, HBAO+ (much more accurate AO solution), 1440p resolution and beyond, etc…)

Driver hell? Nvidia’s GeForce Experience app automatically updates drivers to the latest version with at most 1-2 mouse clicks, and notifies you whenever there’s an update. TBH it’s easier and faster than doing a PS3 system update from my experience.

I’ve had no problem getting 5.1 surround working in all of my PC games over the past 10 years. It would be 7.1 if I had the speakers.

Both consoles and PC have their place for specific target audiences, but we should at least keep the facts correct, and try not to spin objective differences into subjective opinions.

JudahVoorhees

PC gamers sound so desperate lmfao nobody cares but you bro ….NOBODY

chojin999

Pathetic lies by Sony. They are even spreading fake info about BDXL 100GB and 128GB discs support for future H.265 4K video contents if and when the BDA approves such a thing. The PS4 will never support that. The BluRay drive being able to read BDXL discs it’s highly unlikely for such a fraud of a console made with the cheapest possible and outdated hardware. And the PS4 doesn’t have HDMI 2.0 output either.. so no real 4K support in any case.
They just want people to buy now the fraud. Just like Microsoft. Same fraud, same outdated hardware they bought at ultra cheap prices from AMD that needed to sell the crap quickly to avoid going bankrupt.

angh

“They are even spreading fake info about BDXL 100GB and 128GB discs support for future H.265 4K video contents if and when the BDA approves such a thing”

Link?

jay

Ooh, an Intel/Nvdia fanboy…who could’ve thought?

Joel Detrow

He’s not a fanboy, he’s just a moron.

Aron

Nah, he just thinks consoles are shit.

Phobos

It doesn’t has to support 4k as of this moment or in a few years, next gen consoles probably will support 4k but as of now 1080p is the most common. Surely pc’s will lead the way into 2k and 4k resolutions but it will be a slow move before it becomes the standard.

LupineMP3j

Crikey, mate, we’ve just stumbled upon an idiot in his natural habitat! Let’s watch as he makes a fool of himself on the internet….

ArchAngel570

The mars Curiosity rover was made with outdated hardware too…and look what it can do. It’s considered one of the most advanced pieces of space technology ever. Dated does not equate to junk.

When these things go into design, they use current tech to build them. Years later it is impossible at that point in the process to swap out hardware for “the new stuff”.

Whata Toolsack

Proof or you are full of merde.

Zeratul Zum

Right now OGG is far better than MP3.

Phobos

Its a shame its not fully supported.

michael

Sounds like a cop out to me. There can’t be that much to discuss internally. Either you plan to support it or not. We as consumers would appreciate an answer a little more forthcoming. Especially considering launch is just around the corner. Pardon my brevity.

apple999

MP3 has no quality , just a students dream fulfilled.

justerthought

Sony have got to realise their mistake.

I know PS4 is 100% about games and that is applauded, but zero multimedia is silly. We convert our CD’s to mp3 so we can have them all on our games machine as an instantly accessible music library. This was the sort of stunt I expected from Microsoft to be honest, putting everything behind a pay wall.

Functions like this get taken for granted by users as part of Playstation culture, so no-one talks about it. Me included. That means Sony never learns how important it is to Playstation users. It’s only when it gets removed you see the feedback in full force.

Sony failed to realise that by giving us something to do on the console when not playing games, it helps keep the console relevant. Simply because we cannot play games all the time. It’s good for business.

Hopefully mp3 and mp4 playback will be replaced back into Playstation culture.

david

$60~$70 for a game is hard to swallow …

ArchAngel570

Then don’t buy at launch. Since PS3 and 360, games have launched at $60. But yes, that is a lot of money for a game, but I never pay that.

I wish Sony would implement Atrac3plus codec functionality into the PS4, I would really like to migrate my vast .aa3 collection from my PS3.

XenoSilvano

This shouldn’t impact me at all.

if I had a PS4, then, .mp3s would certainly not be the audio format I would use with it (if the PS4 is going to be used as a media centre that is hooked up to a quality sound system, then, I’m going to want a quality audio format),

Given that the humble .mp3 continues to be the defacto audio format of anything to do with multimedia since the 90s (when 52 kbps was the broadband of its day and mp3s made sense), I can therefore sympathies with angst some people out there feel towards the console’s lack of support.

It’d be nice if the PS4 could support other serious formats like .flac, .mkv, .aa3!

Brandon Cooper

I reqlly hope dnla comes to ps4… I felt like I down graded when I got ps4 and traded my ps3… Especially with gt6 going to ps3 im stressed about making a stupid decision to upgrade too early… I should have known what I was getting into… I trust Sony to do wonders with this hardware but for now I have to suggest to STICK WITH PS3 FOR NOW! Not to mention lack of 5ghz WiFi…. Sure the system is fast and pretty but its like robin compared to batman being ps3 with all the gadgets, mqybe older and slower but smarter haha good thing I can resell the ps4 for more then I got it right now…. I hope I save some headaches

Warrior

Oh yeah, like I believe them. I still remember getting screwed on Linux support on the PS3. Will I trust Sony again. Nope. They are not trust worthy.

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